The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has joined with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to launch a training program for transitioning servicemembers and veterans to help them become entrepreneurs and create jobs. Operation Boots to Business: From Service to Startup is a national initiative that will be piloted with the U.S. Marine Corps. The announcement was made July 12 by U.S. Small Business Administrator Karen Mills and U.S. Marine Corps representatives at Quantico, Va.

Operation Boots to Business: From Service to Startup will help support veterans as they grow businesses and create jobs by building on SBA's role as a leader in entrepreneurship training. SBA will help connect veterans with its resource partner network - Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), Women's Business Centers (WBCs), SCORE, and Veterans Business Opportunity Centers (VBOCs) - for support throughout the life-cycle of their new businesses.

Through its ongoing collaboration with Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families, SBA also will provide comprehensive training materials specifically geared toward transitioning service members.

SBA partners will coordinate training and services at military bases around the country, delivering a face-to-face introductory entrepreneurship course. In addition, an intensive eight-week online business planning training will be provided by Syracuse University and its affiliated university partners for those service members who choose to continue to pursue entrepreneurship after the face-to-face introductory course.

The program will pilot in four locations: Quantico, Va.; Cherry Point, N.C.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; and Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif. It will be expanded across the nation during fiscal 2013 with the goal of providing entrepreneurial training and awareness to transitioning servicemembers from all branches of the military.

For more information on Boots to Business training program, and on how to take part as a transitioning servicemember, click here[2].